This is just an amazing ad for Macy's. It really brings home how much of a part of American mythology this grande dame has become. Maybe you have to be into old movies to get it, but I don't care. It's marvelous.

Yeah, I grew up as a kid in NYC being dragged to Macy's, and I stood out on CPW watching the parade every year.

The Macy's we have now is sort of an upscale Target, with stores all over the USA, and varying quality from store to store. Still, that's a hell of a romantic ad, and great branding for Macy's, especially in New York.

I admit Macy's is not my first choice for shopping either but they do foot the bill for the Thanksgiving Day parade and the Fourth of July fireworks. Macy's really does give back to the city in ways that, while not life-and-death, do add to the quality of life in the city. That's a fuck of a lot more than any other retailer in the city.

If you remember Titanic, you will recall an elderly couple where the older gentleman refuses to enter the lifeboat on the grounds he is too old and his wife does the same. They retire to their cabin to spend their last hours together in private. That was Isidor and Ida Straus, the the owners of Macy's. There is a square and memorial in NYC named for them and their funeral was the largest public funeral in the city up to that time. There is also a residence hall at Harvard named in their honor given by their sons. Isidore's body was recovered and is buried in Woodlawn (The Bronx) while Ida's was never found.

If you remember Titanic, you will recall an elderly couple where the older gentleman refuses to enter the lifeboat on the grounds he is too old and his wife does the same. They retire to their cabin to spend their last hours together in private. That was Isidor and Ida Straus, the the owners of Macy's. There is a square and memorial in NYC named for them and their funeral was the largest public funeral in the city up to that time. There is also a residence hall at Harvard named in their honor given by their sons. Isidore's body was recovered and is buried in Woodlawn (The Bronx) while Ida's was never found.

They were much-beloved public figures. Straus and his brother started as glass makers who sold their items at Macy's and eventually bought the store. Straus was a self-made man, the son of immigrants and he never forgot his roots. As Macy's became more upscale, he, like Tiffany, made certain that their store never felt exclusive to anyone. He wanted the fancier downtown trade of course, yet he always made sure his staff was polite to everyone who shopped there even if they didn't look like the sort of customer who might buy anything. This made Macy's enormously popular with everyone. While it never attained the heights of Bonwit's or Barney's, Macy's was seen as a store where one could splurge on nice items while middle class shoppers felt they were going a bit upscale when making purchases and all because Straus made sure his store looked fancier than it really was and treated customers like gold. That it also carried everything under the sun was another treat. If you couldn't find something anywhere, Macy's would likely have it and, like Harrod's, if they didn't have it, they would find it for you.

The Strauses believed in charity and good works, in giving back to the community who spent so much of their hard-earned money there and that made the Strauses highly respected.

That was, "The Magic of Macy's," back before it became just another name in a corporate portfolio.